Within days of the launch of the first satellite ever - Prosteishii Sputnik (PS-1) - on October 4th1957, patients at Psychiatric casualty units were displaying delusions of being tracked by, and receiving messages from, the Sputnik. This phenomenon is informally referred to by psychiatrists as The Sputnik Effect.

The installation THE SPUTNIK EFFECT shares its depictions of a fictional Writing Down Machine with Simon Pummellís feature film SHOCK HEAD SOUL.

The Writing Down Balls that make up this writing machine are inspired by both the delusory writing down systems described by Daniel Paul Schreber, author of Memoirs of my Nervous Illness (1903) and the early typewriter, the Hansen Writing Ball (1865).